Vietnam Robusta Coffee has long made its name on the global coffee market. Vietnam is undoubtedly the paradise for coffee buyers who seek for Robusta coffee at a cheaper rate. Before diving into this guide, remember to check out our “Vietnam coffee market” blog series to have an overview of the coffee industry in Vietnam. In this essential guide to Vietnam Robusta, we will walk you through 4 best types of Robusta to buy in Vietnam.
1. Vietnam Robusta Coffee at a glance.
The majority of Vietnam coffee beans – around 97% – are the Robusta variety, International Coffee Council data shows. Known for their bold, harsh, bitter flavor, and high caffeine content, Robusta beans are typically used to make cheap, mass-market commercial products, including instant coffee and supermarket blends. Robusta can be grown at lower altitudes, in hotter climates, and with less moisture. Main Robusta coffee growing provinces locate in the Central Highlands, including Dak Lak, Lam Dong, Dak Nong, Gia Lai and Kon Tum. This area has many legends about coffee such as the Buon Ma Thuot brand. There are some geographic indications of the coffee regions (‘Buon Ma Thuot’, ‘Cau Dat – Da Lat’ and ‘Son La’) known for their quality, sweet aroma and strong flavor resulting from the soil characteristics. Since Robusta has fewer growing restrictions and has a generally less desirable flavor, it is usually sold for a lower price than Arabica beans.
2. Green Robusta Coffee from Vietnam
Green coffee beans are raw coffee beans that have not been roasted. In Vietnam, farmers will harvest the ripe coffee cherries and then process them under 3 main techniques. They are then dried to a moisture level of about 11% by either of three methods. Read the details of processing method on how Vietnam’s coffee beans are processed. The beans may be also wet polished to remove any silver skin remaining on the beans. As a result, the so-called green coffee beans are bagged, stored and shipped to importing countries for roasting and grinding.
Green Robusta beans from Vietnam
Green Robusta Coffee is the key product of Vietnam, bringing Vietnam second position in the world for coffee exports and No. 1 for Robusta coffee exports. Since green coffee is cheaper than other processed coffee, buying green Robusta coffee might be a smart decision financially. What is more, when buying green coffee beans, you are in full control of the roasting process, hence easily managing the cup quality. In term of green beans, various suppliers in Vietnam provide commercial Robusta and Fine Robusta, which means high quality Robusta as well. Overall, main types are:
– Vietnam Robusta green beans washed/unwashed/honey with wet-polished or non wet-polished: grade 1 on screen No. 18, grade 1 on screen No. 16, grade 2 on screen No. 13;
For exporting to market with strict safety standard, various Vietnamese coffee farmers have been applying advanced agricultural production technology to obtain national and international certifications, such as 4C (Common Code for the Coffee Community); VietGAP (Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices); UTZ (UTZ Certified); and RFA (Rainforest Alliance). What is more, in Vietnam, green Robusta coffee beans are also verified with HALAL certification, which are highly preferred in Muslim-majority countries and in some Western countries. These quality certifications make it easy for coffee to be exported to the overseas market and meet the global customer’s requirement. Read more details of each quality certifications you need to take into consideration when buying coffee from Vietnam.
3. Roasted Robusta Coffee from Vietnam.
During the last decade, green coffee beans accounted for more than 90% of Vietnam’s exported volume. However, exports of highly processed coffee have increased in recent years. In 2016, nearly 63,000 tons of roasted and soluble coffee products were exported, customs data of Vietnam exports shows. Coffee roasting is a heating process that helps bring out the aroma and flavor of a green coffee beans. In Vietnam, while the methods vary from simple to the expensive ones, there are four main types of coffee roasts: Light roast, medium roast, medium dark roast, dark roast. Therefore, Roasted Robusta Coffee from Vietnam are categorized into four main types:
- Vietnam Robusta light roast coffee beans:
+ The beans are pale and dry-looking
+ Light roasted beans have the most caffeine and the most acidity
- Vietnam Robusta medium roast coffee beans
+ The beans are still dry, with more sweetness due to further caramelize.
+ Medium roasted beans have balanced flavor, aroma, and lower acidity, medium amount of caffeine.
- Vietnam Robusta medium dark roast coffee beans
+ The beans begin to show an oily sheen on surface
+ Medium dark roasted beans have a fuller flavor, more body, and less acidity.
- Vietnam Robusta dark roast coffee beans
+ The beans show visible oils on the surface
+ Dark roasted beans have heavy and full body flavor with spicy notes, low amount of caffeine
4 types of roasted Robusta coffee. Source: coffeechanel
–> Find out how to check the quality of Vietnam coffee beans
4. Instant Robusta coffee from Vietnam
Instant coffee is also called soluble coffee or dried coffee extract. This beverage enables people to quickly prepare hot coffee by adding hot water to the powder and stirring. In Vietnam, a wide range of instant Robusta coffee is manufactured. There is a huge variety of instant coffee brands on Vietnam’s market, but these are the list of main categories of instant Robusta coffee:
- Robusta spray dried instant coffee powder from Vietnam;
- Robusta agglomerated Instant Coffee powder from Vietnam;
- Robusta freeze-dried instant coffee powder from Vietnam;
- Robusta decaffeinated instant coffee from Vietnam;
- Robusta 3in1 instant coffee mix from Vietnam: Robusta instant powder mixed with sugar cane and non-dairy creamer;
- Instant coffee can/bottle from Vietnam (concentrated liquid form).
Freeze Dried Instant Robusta Coffee from Vietnam
5. Ground Robusta coffee from Vietnam
Ground Robusta coffee is made from whole coffee beans that went through the grinding process. Ground coffee varies in sizes, from very fine, fine, medium to coarse. For ground coffee, the brewing methods are different from instant coffee. It can range from Pour over, French press to Percolated or using Espresso machine. In Vietnam, people commonly drink coffee by using phin coffee filter with ground coffee. Other products that Vietnam coffee suppliers sell on the market is: Drip coffee bag from Vietnam or Whole ground bean from Vietnam.
Check out the grind size chart below to know which size is best suited to your brewing method.
Coffee Grind Size | Should use for |
|---|---|
Finely Ground | Espresso |
Medium – Fine | Moka Pots |
Medium Ground | Drip Coffee & Vacuum Brewers |
Medium – Coarse | Chemex Brewers |
Coarse Ground | French Press & Percolators |
Viego Global – Your trusted sourcing partner in Vietnam
In order to provide a deeper insight on Vietnam’s Coffee Market, we’ve created this series along with tips on how to select the best beans from Vietnam for your business. Jump to:
- A start-to-finish guide to coffee beans market in Vietnam
- Best types of coffee beans to source in Vietnam
- How to find wholesale coffee suppliers in Vietnam
- Essential guide to checking the quality of Vietnam’s green coffee beans
- 4 Most common mistakes when sourcing green coffee beans from Vietnam
- Everything you need to know about Vietnam’s specialty coffee
Are you sourcing coffee beans from Vietnam? Do you need a source of high quality coffee? If you want to connect with any qualified coffee producers in Vietnam that pay strict attention to their beans, please comment below so we could help you out easily. Being presence at the factory location, Viego has the capability to professionally source, manufacture and execute order providing maximum benefit to our clients in terms of delivering a wide range of products at the best competitive pricing. Please contact us HERE for further support!
2. 4C (Common Code for the Coffee Community) for coffee from Vietnam
